MLB.com's Greg Johns blogs about the Mariners. You can also follow him on Twitter @gregjohnsmlb.

Mariners sign top Dominican prospect

While there wasn’t an abundance of news coming from the Mariners out of the Winter Meetings on Monday, the club did make an interesting move for the future by signing 17-year-old Dominican Republic shortstop Esteilon Peguero.

Peguero is regarded as the premier young position prospect in the Dominican and a big-time international signing.

The Mariners have landed a few interesting players in the international market. Felix Hernandez and Jose Lopez were signed that way. So were current up-and-comers Greg Halman and Carlos Triuenfel.

There’s no guarantee that Peguero will be a future star, but the Mariners like his potential enough to outbid the Rangers, among others, to make him the highest-paid international signee in baseball this year with a $2.9 million bonus, according to Baseball America.

What does it mean? Not much for fans wanting immediate results. But the Mariners keep preaching patience and building through the long-term approach and have been among MLB’s most-aggressive teams in the international market in the last few years under international scouting director Bob Engle.

“We are happy to add a multi-tools player at a premium position to our organization,” said Zduriencik. “Congratulations to Bob Engle, Patrick Guerrero and our Latin America scouting staff as we continue to build this organization and assemble talent.”

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